Disappointed to see the GST to increase to 15%.
There are more than a 100 ways to skin a cat and there many more ways to balance the books.
BTW, why is there a need to balance the books?
The LNP are such good money managers, they really have no need to use unfavourable legislation to bring the books back to budget. hehehehehe.
A GST increase is the easy way and has nothing to do with skills or endeavours.
Come on guys, make an effort and try to keep matters equal!

The devil whispered, “You cannot withstand the storm“ and I replied: “I am the storm!”.....Unknown.

Raising the GST is bad enough, but a 50% hike? - that does seem extreme. An increase to 12.5% would have been more appropriate. As many have already commented, this will hit the poor and aged especially hard. Politicians talk of tax cuts , minor pension increases etc, but what is the point in giving with one hand and taking with the other. End result is the same, the disadvantaged in our society are ALWAYS worse off.
This is being done supposedly because our economy is struggling and we have a growing deficit - what happens when the situation improves, our economy progresses to the next inevitable stage in the cycle (growth and prosperity) and the government reigns in the deficit. Will the GST be reduced to its former level -we ALL know politicians better than that.

No matter how much money they have coming in they will find a way to spend it.
Money in the bank does not win votes.
as we saw with the mining tax, people rush around claiming its the end of the world when ever tax 'reform' is mentioned
The only government that broke the mold was john howard and peter costello.
gods i tells ya. gods!

And how did they achieve that Buck by taking it to an election.
John Howard was re-elected leader of the Liberal party in 1995, and pledged "never, ever" to introduce the GST.[1] Howard led the Liberal-National Coalition to a large victory in the 1996 federal election. However, before the 1998 election, Howard proposed a GST that would replace all existing sales taxes, as well as applying to all goods and services. At the election, the Howard Government suffered a swing against it of 4.61% at the election, achieving a two-party-preferred vote of only 49.02%, compared with Labor on 50.98%. Nevertheless, the incumbent government retained a majority of seats in the lower house and Howard described the election win as a "mandate for the GST". Lacking a Senate majority, and with Labor opposed to the introduction of the GST, the government turned to the minor parties such as the Australian Democrats to gain the necessary support to get the necessary legislation through the Senate.
And we all know what happened to the democrats after Meg Lees sold out to Howard over time it destroyed them and Howard eventually lost the election and his seat, so Turnbull is risking all attempting to increase the goods and services tax
What say ye oh prophet of doom.

“You see things; and you say, ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were; and I say, ‘Why not?’”
George Bernard Shaw